


Unacceptable

by autobotscoutriella



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Assassination Plot(s), Community: fandomweekly, Gen, Hostage Situations, Moral Dilemmas, Pre-Canon, kinda sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27401302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: Jazz has signed off on morally dubious plans before, but this one still feels like a step too far.
Kudos: 19
Collections: FandomWeekly (2019-2020) Writing Challenge on Dreamwidth





	Unacceptable

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [FandomWeekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/375844.html) prompt "Skeletons in the closet".
> 
> I'm not entirely sure what continuity this ended up being. I was leaning toward Bayverse, but had to cut out the introductory bit establishing that for wordcount reasons, so...it's Bayverse-adjacent? There's really nothing keeping it from being IDW, either.

This time, the 'Cons had really backed them into a corner, and they hadn't left a lot of ways out.

Jazz didn't need Prowl's tactical analysis to tell him that, even though Prowl had helpfully written the whole thing up in a file that was classified above top-level clearance. A sense of disquiet had settled into his spark the moment he had seen the initial field reports.

The Decepticon officer who had taken Nova Cronum was a brutally efficient tactician, and he had to be using spies - probably several, probably in multiple major bases. He had been two or three steps ahead of the Autobots all along, and now that he had Nova Cronum's tiny Neutral population as hostages, he had every reason to think he'd gotten the upper hand for good.

"There are gaps in his external defense we could exploit," Prowl observed quietly. "We outnumber his forces. We can take Nova Cronum back. But we cannot do it quickly enough to save the Neutrals. When he sees us coming - and he will - he will order them all killed."

"Not acceptable." Jazz leaned forward on the table, staring at the holographic projection of the Nova Cronum outpost as if he could will some other way into existence. "And you know Prime'll never sign off on it. He'd rather cede Nova Cronum to the 'Cons than let them kill their hostages."

"Would you?" Prowl's tone stayed perfectly neutral.

"Would I what? Let the 'Cons have Nova Cronum? Of course not, but there's twenty-five innocent lives on the line. Do _you_ want to sign their death warrants?" Jazz snapped, one hand closing into a fist.

"I don't think _want_ comes into it." Prowl's calm was normally an asset in a crisis. Right now, it was infuriating. "From that outpost, the Decepticons have a clear line to strike at Iacon, which will put far more than twenty-five lives on the line. I don't see an alternative. Do you?"

"There has to be something." Jazz straightened up, glaring at the hologram instead of at Prowl. "There is _always_ an option that doesn't involve sacrificing hostages."

"Not always." Prowl spoke quietly, but firmly. "You and I both know that we've signed off on worse. I don't like this any more than you do, but sometimes there is no third option. Sometimes the good of the many - "

"If you quote Sentinel Prime at me _one more time_ \- " Jazz broke off, teeth gritting until it hurt. "We've done things when the war was desperate. When it was sacrifice a few or guarantee the death of the whole unit. Never for the _possibility_ of a Decepticon incursion."

"You act like I'm suggesting dropping an air strike on the whole base." Prowl rose, pacing across to the back wall and back again. "The Decepticons are responsible for whatever happens to the Neutrals, Jazz. For all we know, they could already have been executed and the commander is just dangling the possibility they're still alive to keep us debating while he cements his hold on Nova Cronum."

That was true, and Jazz couldn't refute it. "That doesn't mean we can just throw them to the wirewolves. As long as there's a possibility we can keep them alive, we have to act on it."

"Now you sound like Ratchet." Prowl sat back down at the table with a heavy sigh. "All right, let's say we don't attack. What do you suggest? Hold our position and wait? Call in reinforcements for Iacon, and hope the Decepticons don't attack before we get there? Assassinate the Decepticon commander and hope that the chaos leaves us enough time to attack before they kill the hostages?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time an assassination was the better option," Jazz muttered, half-sarcastically. Then he straightened. "Actually."

"You're not serious." But Prowl's body language showed that the comment had caught his attention, too. "Prime will never sign off on it."

"If it will save the hostages, he might." Jazz considered that for a moment. "Or he might not need to know the details." A humorless smile flicked across his face. "You and I have both done worse without giving him details he didn't need to know."

Prowl's mouth quirked in a faint, reluctant smile of his own. "I should have known you would turn that around on me."

"Don't raise points you don't want involved in the discussion." Jazz flashed a genuine grin before falling back to seriousness. "Do we have the resources to do it?"

"Not easily, and not without a lot of effort to get someone into that base." Prowl's optics flickered. "Let me run the calculations. I'll let you know if it's a viable plan."

"Make it quick." Jazz turned his gaze back to the hologram. "There's twenty-five hostages waiting on us."


End file.
